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enchanted,
I am commenting on your last post from the previous thread. I can’t imagine having to go into work everyday wondering where I am going to be or if I even have a job for that day. I am stressed just thinking about a lineup without Kemp/Ethier/Loney. I can only imagine what they are going through, knowing that every at-bat is a chance they won’t play tomorrow instead of just thinking of it as another learning experience and going from there. How frustrating it must be for the young players on this team.

The Braves’ announcers are really putting it on the line about the Pierre contract and even the possibility that the Dodgers have two dubious CF contracts – all in polite terms without calling management outright stupid, which we bloggers aren’t reluctant to do. Stupid, stupid you know who!!!

Hey everybody, first post in a few days, hope everyone is doing well. I was watching the movie Major League 2 this morning, and seriously, if it is’nt like watching the Dodgers!!! This has been a rough season to endure so far…. I honestly think I’d rather this happen at the end of the year and look forward to next year, rather than have things be terrible from the get go.

They have to figure out which way they are going to go. Either play the kids or not. This team needs to mature as they do have some growing to do and are not that good yet. Put the kids in and let them get some experience and perhaps we won’t have to go through this next year. Nomore, Pierre, Kent are not the future of this team.

I would say that this is the low point of the season so far. 3 runs in a series is just plain putrid. Not to mention the pitchers we were up against which werent much. 7-11 and possibly 7 GB. It’s getting close to panic time. Still early enough to turn around but it’s getting close

It ain’t workin’ Frank. Fire Ned now. Hire Logan and make Torre play the kids. Its obvious this group is going nowhere as a team, so sit the vets on the bench and let’s let the kids have a free year of experience. Come trade deadline we can start purging those vets and getting something in return. That includes Lowe and Jones (if you can find an idiot to take him.)

I quit watching the game in the 6th inning. I had had enough. I’m sick and tired of watching our hitters taking 2 strikes and then swinging & missing a third strike that’s nowhere near the plate or standing there taking a called third strike with no intentions of swinging. I would rather they swing and miss 3 pitches, at least they would be trying. 3 runs in 3 games is pathetic. We don’t have a team headed to any playoffs at this point. I’m not sure we can beat a AAA or AA team very consistently right now. This is the same team that folded the end of last year. This makes me sick.

I had to laugh – everytime Pierre touched the ball in the OF, Ron Darling would say something about his noodlearm. Truely choice moments when commentators state the obvious on national TV, then say we’ve got him signed thru the 2011 season to get a veiled dig in on Dodger management (or lack thereof.)

Colletti’s collective mark after 2 years, plus 21 games, is 12 games over .500 (177-165). Not bad for a small market team with no resources. But ironically, thanks to Ned, LA’s large resources have been a detriment. If Colletti didn’t have our 4 million fans-worth of beer dollars and parking dollars and hot dog dollars to spend unwisely, perhaps we’d be playing the kids NON-STOP instead of watching them languish behind high-priced, non-producing gray beards. This team, as it stands today, has no soul, no spark, no identity, no direction. I hear all the time about a youth movement, but it doesn’t exist. Colletti puts a team together based on who’s out of options, who hit well five years ago, and who looks good at the press conference podium.

Sit the kids, play the kids, sit the old guys, play the old guys, run and hit, hit and run…The ONLY thing that has changed is that EVERYBODY is miserable…Especially the fans.
The only consistency is leaving RISP. Maybe a high colonic can give our boys the RUNS!! Oh wait, that’s what we just rec’d from the Braves: A colon cleansing.

Don’t know what more there is to say about things. Between us we’ve covered every aspect and angle of the situation until we’re blue in the face (no pun intended.) Only message management is going to hear is if people stop coming to the games.

This team needs time to grow and mature. The vets are over the hill and the kids need experience. Play the kids and let them learn. Martin, Loney, Ethier, Kemp, LaRoche, DeWitt, Hu, DYoung, Kuo are the future. Nomore, Kent, Pierre, Bloaiza, Sweeny aren’t.

VERY dissapointing. Our Brooklyn bretheren had a phrase for situations like this: “THEY’RE BUMS!”

or, as Jim Mora might put it:

Well, I’ll start off by saying this, I don’t care who you play. I don’t care if it’s a High School team, a Junior College team, a College Team, Single A, Double A, Triple A, the Triple A Automobile Club of Southern California, MUCH LESS a Major League team, when you score 3 runs over three games, you ain’t gonna beat anybody I just talked about… ANYBODY. All right? And that was a DISGRACEFUL performance, in my opinion. WE THREW THAT SERIES, We gave it away, by doing that. WE GAVE THEM the friggin’ series. In my opinion, that s#(ked.

what’s that? PLAYOFFS?!!! DON’T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!!! You kiddin’ me, PLAYOFFS?!!! I just hope we could win a game!

That had to be a difficult thing for Ricciardi to do in Toronto – can Thomas with a huge part of his contract still owed, but the guy had the cajones to do it for the good of the team. Its time (once again) to clean house in Dodgertown and decide which direction you want to go, hire someone to get you there, and stick to the plan.

fliegel – you hit the nail on the head – this team has no desire to win. Management mouths the words, but then gives us crap like Nomore, Trigger and Boog. Its really hard to decide who the next dead horse is.

is it only me or did it seem that furcal never really busted down the first base line on that close play at first? he never seems to run hard, but that was a tough throw from the second basemen and furcal was out by at least three steps in what was still a one run game!!!

i think the shuffling lineup has to be affecting the team. true they took two from the pirates (should have swept them actually), but the lineup changes every game, even the 3, 4 and 5 holes, which are the power spots.

finally, laroche and nomar both get hurt on march 4. laroche needs to go to extended spring training for aprox 20 days and nomar plays in three ml games (one as a dl) and is back with the club. either spring training is pointless or nomar is a miraculous healer.

they don’t need another veteran batting his weight and his glove and arm are subpar at best compared to dewitt.

the blue jays and frank thomas parted ways mutual agreement maybe we can come to an agreement with Andruw bench him and maybe he will want to leave ,then try Nomar , something has to kick start this team or just bring up repko,play Hu and dewitt ,laroach when he is ready and get ready for next year

It was an awful series, I have no doubt they’ll play much better this next week. It’d be impossible not to do so. Loney was awful and that is RARE. Martin will pick it up. My only concern is we’re wasting Furcal’s ridiculous start. He will come down to earth soon (not too much I hope). I don’t panic in April, that is what summer is for.

-The Braves last season traded an older SS who is still very good because they had a young SS who may or may not be better and they saved a difference in salary of 8.5 million. They traded him for a young solid arm who beat us today who cost 400k, so they got 2 players for one who cost 1 million total and 8 million less than Edgar Renteria, who so far is hitting worse than the brave SS Escobar. .

The Braves deciding they need to get a legit, still young 3-4 type hitter traded to get another young very PROVEN kid in Texiera (entering his prime years now). One reason they did not resign Jones was they needed that money to lock up Texiera long term which they have.

We pay 37 million for Jones who last year hit…
.222 /.311/.413 /.724
but don’t see fit to keep a guy who makes 405k and plays a decent infield defense who hit last year for us.
.231 /.359 /.474 /.834
no, we trade him for a middle reliver who makes $1,125,000 or twice as much, in Scott Proctor, he of the 9.00 era.

I said it before the season began…This team can’t win with a General Manager that keeps on making so many mistakes in the off season…and mid season…Scott Proctor anyone???…always hated that acquisition…!!!!…I hate to tell y’all, but the Dodgers will be lucky not to come in last place in the division….if they’re lucky 4th place….Before this weekend our excuse was the “tough” Nat West pitiching….no such luck this weekend……first of all, we need to forget Nomar..Andruw Jones may hit a bit here and there, but there are so many strike outs and ground outs in between….How can Ned make decisions that no one else would?….Schmidt, Proctor, Jones, Pierre ( funny he;’s the best of the bunch..lol!)….I aso thought the Diamondbacks would be the best and so far they are….they have so much more than the Dodgers….2 ace pitchers….the Dodgers have none…..great young hitters and lots of good role players….but can anyone tell me if you think the Dodgers have one ace?…not one we can trust game in and game out….I’m embarrassed and upset that this keeps happening every year….but this year could be the worst ever….let DeWitt play everyday for now….he is a much better choice for now…
Don’t you just love how every off season McCourt and all tell everyone they want the Dodgers back to championship form??…Who is he kidding?….Thank God for my Lakers…this will always be a Laker town…..the Dodgers have no clue!!!!

The only thing positive to come out of this weekend is that Torre seems as skeptical about Nomar’s “return” as we are, i.e, he is not the answer at third, and he rushed himself back for no reason. I really hope that LaRoche can come back strong in a few weeks but we’d all be foolish to bet on it. I’m confident that we aren’t THIS bad but we are digging ourself a deep hole and its only April!!!

drpded, I am also a Laker fan. Have been since ’68 (except when they had Rodman. I boycotted those games). Yes, the Lakers are hot and LA is again a Laker town, but last year at this time you couldn’t say that, nor the year before that. The truth is that it’s all about winning. If the Dodgers are the division champ and the favorite to win it all in October, you could bet that LA would be a Dodger town.

There’s no doubt that this is a depressing start. Torre really needs to settle on a starting 8 and stop teasing everyone. You’d think that he knows what he has by now.

I was thinking about teams with a solid 8 and I came up with the Reds of the mid 70s. I looked up the record of the ’76 team and here it is:
1976 Cincinnati Reds
Most Games by Position

Granted, it says nothing about injury or partial games, but will our Dodgers be able to come close to this? Kemp certainly doesn’t need to be rested for 81 games, and that’s the way it’s headed right now. As several people have said, ‘rebuilding’ is a dirty word in management when you’re trying to sell those expensive seats. McCourt, call it whatever you want, but shelve the vets and LET THE KIDS PLAY! As a veteran fan, I would rather watch the kids play all the time and make their mistakes and finish at 76 – 86 than play the vets and be ‘competitive’ at 82 – 80.

On the brighter side, a Kershaw update:
IP 5.2
H 2
R 2
ER 0
BB 2
SO 5
HR 0
Both runs unearned, two errors in the inning. He was replaced in the sixth with two out and no one on. Hopefully he just reached his pitch count limit and didn’t feel anything bad. He didn’t get the win again so he’s still 0 – 3, but he’s lowered his ERA to 1.83. Someone earlier said he’s been disappointing so far, but I disagree. His season so far:
W 0
L 3
ERA 1.83
G 4
GS 4
CG 0
IP 19.2
H 15
R 7
ER 4
HR 0
HB 0
BB 8
SO 23
I think he’s right on course. Won-loss records are over-blown.

It’s still April. There’s a long way to go. Settle on a starting 8 Joe and LET’S GO DODGERS!!!!!! AND LAKERS!!!!!

All i want to say is good pitching from Kuroda.
He has pitch very well, but once again did not get the run support. I really don’t know what to expect from the dodgers at this point. I don’t know what team is going to show to play. Penny is not looking so affective at this point, nothing to what he look liked last seaon at this point in the season. Chad B. is not looking that well. The only two pitchers that i do see been affective is Kuroda and Lowell.
As far as the offense goes hopefully they can find the chemistry soon. As good as the west is, they can’t afford to fall to behind any more. Hopefully Looney gets back on track with his hitting. Didn’t look to good these last two games. An i am really hoping the Dewitt kicks it in gear.
Im a big fan of Nomar, but he just doesn’t look comfortable out there. I can’t remembe the last time a hitter had any success hitting the ball, by sticking his *** out and throwing his hands at the ball.

I’m not so much bothered by yesterday’s loss, because I think Jurrjens will be one of the fine young pitchers comparable to what Bills can do on a good day. On the positive side Torre finally sat down Nomore, and we had some fine defense between DeWitt and Hu. Torre now needs to make a permanent decision that Nomore will not be the answer at third, and he needs to make a similar decision about Pierre trying to play left field. If he would do those two things, I will maintain the patience to ride with the club and expect that they can straighten out enough to have a moderately successful season. We probably have to ride with Andruw for whatever he proves to be worth, but he may need to sit for a while as well, because he’s contributing nothing but frustration. It would be a good time to let DY play a series or two to get a feel whether he’s of value taking up his roster spot. At this point he’s doing just that – taking up a spot without any purpose. If he can get into a groove hittingwise, it is time to let Sweeney go. And above all, it is time to just let the young guys play, because even Kent won’t make the difference to get us into the playoffs – if we get there, it will be the cohesive unit of the young players that’ll get us there.

In the meantime, Colletti must be fired or leave for personal reasons, or whateever, but just GO.

I am normally a big critic of modern athletes and their “me first” mentality, but I have to say that, in trying to accentuate the positive here, I really like a couple of quotes in today’s Times story about yesterday’s game.

First, regarding Russell Martin: “Asked about his fourth-inning home run, the slumping All-Star catcher immediately steered the conversation toward his eighth-inning force-out that squandered his team’s last chance to tie the score.”

Second, Hiroki Kuroda: “I’m sure the wins will come,” he said. “What I have to do first is to make sure I continue pitching like this so I could earn the trust of my teammates.”

I like stuff like this. It shows character. I can point to this and show it to my son.

The problem with this team is the lack of excitement and fun loving attitude that we could have by playing the young guys regularly instead of this Grady Little crap of switching the da.mn lineup every day.

Another thing, what is this crap of Bills not getting Martin??? He needs Martin to call his games more than anyone!

If we keep screwing with the lineups like last year, then I hope this team goes in the tank fast and Frank can lose his butt and the old guys can be traded at the deadline.

Big surprise Loney in a slump, huh? I wonder how many times this year he’s batted in the same slot?

Scott,
I wish it wasn’t true at all. I’m a diehard fan. I’m also a Rams fan too(even after they left and when the stunk it up here.) I can stick thru the toughest of times even when we stink up the league. I wait and hope for that ONE season when it all comes back.
I just hope I’m not right at all, Scott. I hope…
Jack

Pressure. The pitcher’s HAVE to keep the rest of the team in the game. The hitting sure isn’t doing it so the pressure of keeping the team in the game by trying to hard is getting them into situations where they are over-throwing or pitching behind the hitters. Make ONE mistake and BAM it’s 5-1, just like yesterday. The hitters are trying too hard and swinging at BAD, BAD pitches. At least Martin took credit for his mistake of not taking what the opposing pichers are serving rather than trying to pull an outside pitch to left.
PLATE DISCIPLINE, fellas.

Regarding the pitching wearing out at 5 innings, I think I heard someone over the weekend say something that I’ve been saying for years – pitchers tend to give hitters too much credit. Meaning that they are too careful and end up throwing too many pitches.

Someone 10 – 20 years ago used to wear a T-shirt under his uniform that said, “Babe Ruth is DEAD. Throw strikes.” Maybe Torre can have a dozen of those printed up.

It seems like there’s a tremendous lack of coaching and/or listening going on in the minors – the stuff that Bowa’s trying to teach these guys should’ve been learned in A ball, then refined and reinforced all thru AA and AAA. No way should these guys have to learn baserunning, bunting, situational hitting and the like at the ML level.

Maybe I’m wrong, but another thing that bothers me is that you never hear of Lowe and Penny teaching/advising the young guys like Billz. You always hear about Maddux and Glavine helping along the young guys, but Lowe’s been around a good many years that he should be able to help as well.

Sure Lowe/ Penny might have some wise words, but Maddux was just on another level. I remember Lowe got alot of advice from Maddux too. Maybe they don’t feel comfortable in that role. In any case, just another reason to jump on the “fire Honeycutt” bandwagon.

Honeycutt is probably teaching them about the benefits of eating a lot of donuts. He probably gets along great with Jones.

Why does everyone have pitching coaches that couldn’t teach themselves to be better than mediocre?

Hitting coaches too. This Dave Madigan loser has been around forever as a hitting coach. What a bust he was as a player. At least Easler was a decent hitter, although I was really hoping Mattingly would be the guy.

These coaches can only offer what NOT do to to be successful it seems.

brandondaughrity@hotmail.com wrote on April 20, 2008 1:26 PM: “This team is getting to be the most undearable Dodger team I’ve been alive to witness!!!”
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All I can say is, “Brandon, you must be a very, very young man to have forgotten how frustrating it was to watch Jim Tracy mismanage the 2005 Dodgers. Not to mention some of Fred Claire’s awful early 1990s teams. And the Fox and Kevin Malone years, yuck.

So Lowe has a weakness for the ladies and a penchant for leaving sliders over the plate…

Me thinks its the latter reason that the Sox didn’t resign him. Can’t imagine this day and age that it’d be a morals issue, especially in Boston, NY, LA unless you were running down the road at rush hour stark naked with a gerbil’s head out your *** singing “I did it my way.” Even then its debateable if you could still throw decently.

Milton’s off to a good start this year. What really frustrates me is that every team in the league would love to have Kemp on their roster, yet we continue to sit him on the bench. If he’s not in the lineup today I will be really PO’d.

well, let me see, this Atlanta no-name pitcher does really well against righties when it’s overcast and he’s pitched well in 2 of his last three games and…JUST PLAY THE BEST FREAKING PLAYERS YOU WOODEN HEADED IDIOT!!

Common sense tells me that Joe Torre is a better manager than Grady, but man, what does it take for this team to see things clearly?!

That whole stupid China trip is proving to be the cause for this crap as Joe wasn’t able to see Pierre $uck first hand PLUS the “lineup” had little time to gel before the season started. Stupid Frank in that case.

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